Many owners of pickup trucks find that an open cargo bed does not meet their needs. Accordingly, the installation of camper shells on pickup trucks has become a popular technique for enclosing pickup truck cargo beds. Camper shells obviate any need for tieing down loose cargo which might otherwise be blown out of the cargo bed by the wind, protect the cargo from the weather, and enhance security for the cargo.
While a camper shell may often be a desirable pickup truck accessory, it is also a nuisance at times. Such times may occur when an owner wishes to clean or otherwise access the front region of the cargo bed. The confined spaces of a camper shell make such tasks difficult. Such times may also occur when a need arises for hauling cargo which may be too large to fit within the confines of the enclosed cargo bed, but which would otherwise fit if the camper shell were not installed.
A few selectively liftable camper shells have been devised to prevent camper shells from being a nuisance. In particular, camper shells have been devised which are selectively liftable so that they pivot out of the way while still remaining attached to a cargo bed. However, the conventional selectively liftable camper shells suffer from unique problems that are not experienced by mass market conventional stationary camper shells, i.e. camper shells which are either installed or removed from a cargo bed but are not selectively liftable. Hence, they have failed to achieve widespread commercial success.
One problem experienced by conventional selectively liftable camper shells concerns the use of an external forward brace or stationary section. This brace or section has heretofore been deemed necessary in order to cause the camper shell to pivot about an axis at the top, forward end of the shell. This direction of shell rotation is desirable because it keeps the camper shell confined over the outline of the pickup truck in a raised position for usability in confined spaces. The pivot axis at the top of the shell prevents the front of the shell from rotating forward into the back of a pickup cab. Instead, the front of the shell rotates rearward away from the cab.
This external forward brace or stationary section is a highly undesirable feature. It requires an inventory of different parts which are individually installed on the pickup. The use of a shell having separate parts leads to cost increases in manufacturing, shipping, stocking, and installing when compared to stationary camper shells.
In some situations the additional parts and complexity lead to a significantly heavier camper shell, and the use of different parts tends to cause a noisy implementation after the camper shell has been subjected to the rigors of time and the jostling of vehicular use. Moreover, the use of a multi-part camper shell tends to be incompatible with existing stationary camper shell designs and the expensive molds used in making existing stationary camper shells. Some multi-part shells tend to include external structures which interrupt the design lines of the pickup and shell so that aerodynamic characteristics and aesthetic qualities are degraded.
In one conventional implementation, a pivotal rear camper shell section rotates about a stationary front camper shell section. This implementation has reduced structural integrity compared to a stationary camper shell because the front section does not rigidly tie camper shell side walls together. In addition, security and protection from weather are reduced when compared to stationary camper shells if a flexible fabric section is used between the front and rear sections to accommodate movement between the sections.
Furthermore, conventional selectively liftable camper shells fail to provide sufficient structural integrity and latching devices to permit vehicular travel with the shell in a raised position. Consequently, such conventional shells fail to allow the hauling of cargo which may be too large to fit into an enclosed cargo bed when the shell is lowered.